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Ely College

Ely College

All the latest News from Ely College

April 2018

  • Ely College joins East Cambs Robotics

    Published 24/04/18

    East Cambs Robotics is an initiative set up by a local automation engineering company, Innomech, to help inspire the next generation of young engineers. Working in line with the year-long government campaign 'Year of Engineering', Innomech are passionate about tackling the engineering skills gap.

    Three local schools, including Ely College, have been provided with robotics kits to participate in the VEX EDR competition; a globally organised robotics competition with 20,000 teams across 45 countries.

    A group of our students have taken up the challenge and the first robots are already underway! The first VEX East Cambs schools event, involving Ely College, Soham and Witchford is set for 10th July at Ely College. We are so excited to host or fellow East Cambs schools and partners in industry. This competition event will involve three challenges – volleyball, basketball and cube stacking. From September 2018 the teams will participate in VEX EDR 2017-18 regional competitions, with the possibility of progressing to national or even world level.

    While Innomech have given our team an amazing start and will continue to provide help publicising their achievements, it will be for the team to support themselves through fundraising. Sponsorship will be the main source of income, so if any individual or company could help support this incredible opportunity for young people please get in touch with Mr A Fisher: afisher@elycollege.co.uk

    You can also follow these robotics events on Twitter:

         @VEXEastCambs

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  • ROBOCON 2018

    Published 20/04/18

    Months of hard work and preparation paid off for our keen science club last weekend. Staff accompanied four students to Robocon 2018, hosted by Hills Road Sixth Form. One of the most exciting robotics competition to take place in Cambridge, Robocon 2018, was sponsored by Cheffins and included eight teams from schools across the region, putting their robotics and engineering skills to the test on the 14th and 15th April. 

    The rules of the much-anticipated competition were released at the launch event in November and the teams have been busy building their robots in preparation for the two-day competition. The teams were required to demonstrate the skills of their robots within a bespoke-built arena, provided by fit-out and design company, COEL. The robots had to pick up cubes and place them in designated areas of the arena. A robot that controls a cube will earn their team one point, two points if the robot puts a cube in the designated area and five points if the cube is placed in a bucket. The team with the most points won!

    Ely College student said “The competition was an amazing experience as well as an excellent opportunity to check out the sixth form and meet fellow STEM students. It's always great to see the varied and innovative approaches that other teams have used with their designs and the strategies of their robots to best complete the required tasks.” 

    Teams of between 4 to 8 members from the following schools took part in Robocon 2018: Comberton Village College, Ely College, The Perse School, Collyer’s (Sussex), Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School (Herts), Hazelwick School (Crawley), Haydon School (Hillingdon), Longsands Academy (St Neots), St Peter’s School (Huntingdon), The John Warner School (Herts) and Hills Road Sixth.

    We’re pleased to say that the Ely College team made us proud with their Dr Who themed robot and represented the college exceptionally well all weekend (especially in costume on the sunday!)

    The winning teams were:

    First Place – Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge
    Second Place – The Perse School, Cambridge
    Third Place – Richard Collyers College, Sussex

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